Using Drama to Support Literacy

Activities for Children Aged 7 to 14

John Goodwin

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781446246634
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Methods for Reading

?This book will be a welcome, practical addition to the repertoires of teachers of children aged 7-11 who are looking for inspiration and relevance in their teaching of writing skills? - Speaking English

`For the drama novice, this is the book to buy. It reveals drama?s power, maps the route to success, and empowers the reader to follow? - Literacy Time

`All activities are inspiring and imaginative, and the written activities that follow them are varied and interesting...this book will prove useful, especially in the upper primary and middle school? - English Drama Media

Using ideas and activities already tried and tested in the classroom, this book shows practitioners how imaginative drama lessons and activities can be used to help encourage and improve children?s writing, speaking and listening skills.

Perfect for the person who might not be used to leading drama-based activities, this book takes a step-by step approach that will help even the most daunted teacher tackle drama with confidence. Also included are:

-ideas for suitable writing and drama activities

-advice on lesson planning

-list of useful resources

-examples of children?s work and teachers? comments

Class teachers, teaching assistants, literacy consultants and drama and English co-ordinators looking for practical, fun drama activities to support literacy will find all the help they need in this book.

STRATEGIES

A tool kit for drama and a means to structure learning whatever the curriculum subject. Strategies can be used in sequences when longer time slots are available or in singles if you only have a shorter time. You don’t need the hall as a cleared classroom space often is more atmospheric.

EXTRACT FROM A TEACHER’S JOURNAL

I was doing some work on the First World War poets with a year 8 class and I realised how drama could draw so much out of some difficult poetry and it worked brilliantly. We explored Dulce et Decorum Est through text marking, finding words that expressed tiredness, panic and disgust. By doing this we were getting into the feeling of the poem. We then created still images to show fatigue, panic and disgust. After that, working in one big circle, we used space building to create the battlefield after a gas attack and to write a description of the dereliction in 50 words. It was such powerful stuff.

CAPTION MAKING

Adding a title to a still image. Children create the title verbally or in written form. They can create a headline imagining the image as a newspaper photograph or a name if it’s a painting or sculpture.

Example
History: Second World War – The Blitz

History Links:	KS2 4a, b, 5c, 8a, 11b
Literacy Links:	En1 2a, 4a, b, c, 11a; Enc3 1a, 9a, 10, 11

Activity

The drama focuses on the moment people leave the safety of an air raid shelter to discover that their house has been destroyed by bombing. They do this by creating a still image in small groups and adding their thoughts through thought tracking.

Written work

1. Ask each group to do a written version of their verbal caption.
2. Discuss these as a whole class.
3. Ask each group to write down alternative captions for their own image and/or that of other groups.

CEREMONY

Special events devised to mark, commemorate or celebrate something of cultural or historical significance.

Example
History: Saxons and Vikings

History Links:	KS2 1a, 4b, 5c, 8a, 9
Literacy Links:	En1 2a, 4a, b, c, 11a; En3 1a, b, 12

Activity

The drama focuses on a meeting between Viking invaders and Saxon settlers. A village meeting is to be held to talk over the threat of a Viking invasion which has already seen the destruction of nearby villages. Before the meeting can begin all the villagers have to take part in a simple greeting ceremony. The whole class devise the ceremony and put it into action to begin the meeting.

Written work

1. With an adult as scribe do a wholeclass written brainstorm of words and phrases that describe the village on the day of the meeting. Focus on feelings, body language and the setting of the village.
2. Openings. Working as individuals children write down their opening sentence of a description of the village at this time.
3. Having shared these as a whole class children write their own description of the village meeting in 50 words. Ask them to concentrate on the sounds, smells and sights of the village.

CONSCIENCE ALLEY

A strategy exploring tough dilemmas. A character in role walks between two rows of children (the alley). Each side offers alternative advice representing the conscience of the character. At the end of the row, the character has to make a decision based on which side was more convincing.

Example
Art and Design: Last of England

Art and Design Links:	KS2 4c, 5a
Literacy Links:	En1 2a, 4a, b, c, 11a; En3 1a, 9a, 10, 11

Activities

The class have been studying the Pre-Raphaelite painting Last of England by Ford Madox Brown. They imagine the two principal characters in the painting are called Robert and Sophie, who are leaving England to begin a new life in America.

The teacher or a child takes the role of either Robert or Sophie and walks down the conscience alley at the m...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• About the author
• Setting the scene for this book
• The scope and structure of the book
• Introduction: how to use this book
• What children and teachers say
• Strategies
• Lessons in action
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index